In The Darkness
by Jester's Lackey
Summary: An AU with an interesting twist. What if things didn't happen the way they were supposed to? What if the adepts took another path? What if there's something more, lurking in the shadows?
1. Chapter 1

Firstly, I disclaim. I don't own Golden Sun, Camelot, or any of the characters or places appearing herein. Not so for some of the psynergy, as I toss around a few psynergies and the concept of psynergy-mixing, which aren't in the games. Secondly, there will be no pairings beyond the ones that are suggested in the games, and even those will be light to unrecognizable. Finally, I can't be sure of when this will be continued, but it will be sooner or later. I just prefer posting as I write to finishing the whole thing and then posting it.

-----

The sound of rain falling against the roof of the temple was the first thing the young blond heard as he was roused from his not-so-deep slumber. It wasn't the rain that had awakened him, of that he was sure. It was something indescribable. A feeling, he decided, was the nearest term he could come up with, though if it were a feeling, it didn't belong to him, nor anyone nearby for that matter, which made it all the stranger. But whatever it was it was telling him he needed to be awake.

He sat up, blankets falling down into his lap, and he ran a hand over his face and through his hair, trying to feel a bit more coherent than he did at the moment. A shiver ran up his spine as he realized just how cold the room was, especially when all that stood between the cold air and his fair skin was a thin, worn and tattered silk shirt, a birthday gift from years before.

Pushing himself to his feet, he grabbed a thick robe hanging off the back of a chair by his bed and wrapped it around his shoulders, pulling the sleeves on and buttoning it down to his waist. Thankfully, he thought, the loose fitting cotton pants were warm enough without having to add another layer. Almost without thinking, he grabbed his keepsake rod from where it leaned against a wall beside his sleeping mat, and let the end drag on the ground as he walked silently toward the altar.

Tightening his grip on the rod, he whispered quietly and felt the waves of psynergy gathering and flowing through his body. "Sight."

"_I can't reach him, my psynergy is dry! What about you, Kyle?"_

"_I'm tapped too."_

"_Hold on Felix! I'll go find someone who can help him; stay here and-"_

"_Ah! Felix!"_

"_No, it's okay, he's still there! Go find someone who can help!"_

"_Mom, let me go too! I can't just stay here and watch!"_

"_All right, head down to the square and find someone- anyone- who has any psynergy left."_

"_Hold on Felix! Help is on the way! Just don't let go!"_

"Ivan."

The youthful adept's eyes opened at once, shocked out of the meditative state the 'Sight' psynergy had placed him into. Turning slowly, he smiled slightly as he saw his violet-haired sister, standing nearby and watching him. "Sister. Did I wake you?"

She shook her head. "No- well, somewhat. You couldn't sleep, so…"

He glanced down at the floor, the faint traces of a blush crawling across his cheeks. "Sorry. I didn't mean to project. I don't know why I did it; I just felt like I had to."

"Don't worry." She said, making a dismissing wave with her hand, "Go ahead and continue. I think it's important."

Ivan's eyes widened. "Have you foreseen-?"

"No, nothing like that." She shook her head, her hair waving back and forth in the motion. "My instincts say so. Even ones such as us must take a leap of faith now and again."

Ivan nodded, then turned back to the altar, once again letting the psynergy wash over him. "Sight."

"_Isaac, Garet. Have you come to help Jenna?"_

"_Yes."_

"_Yeah, the path has been blocked by boulders. We can show you the way back."_

"_Oh, good boys. I'm proud of you two."_

"_Okay! I'm ready, let's go!"_

"_Have you recovered your psynergy?"_

"_Enough to save Felix, and from the sound of it this isn't something that can wait."_

"Do you know where this takes place?" Hamma's voice again startled him, but at least this time he managed to retain the effect of the psynergy and move it toward the back of his mind. That way he could avoid casting 'Sight' again and still return to the vision at a moment's notice.

"No. I don't recognize any of it. The clothes do seem Angaran, though. The plants look northern, too. But no snow, so it can't be too far north. And they spoke of boulders. A mountain, maybe," he paused and looked to Hamma again, his eyes opening in shock. "It's not-it couldn't be. Mount Aleph?"

She nodded.

"Do you really think the prophecy is coming true?" he sounded confused.

Hamma cocked her head. "Did you doubt it? I am not the only one to have seen the prophecy. It has been handed down to us from our ancestors. The same as your rod."

"I-I didn't doubt it. I just-" he turned himself inward momentarily to check on the vision again. "I never dreamed it would happen in my lifetime."

She smiled slightly, "I would like to get some sleep tonight, so do you think you can-"

Ivan began to nod immediately. "Yes. I'll keep it down." He smiled at her, his eyes tired but apparently too excited to just leave it alone. With a smile of her own, Hamma departed, leaving Ivan alone again, and he returned to his vision.

"_Mom, Dad. Please no."_

"_I can't believe it. Dad. Felix. Don't leave me."_

"_This is terrible. Terrible. Someone should go tell the mayor. Stay here, I'll go-"_

"_No. I'll go."_

"_Isaac, are you sure?"_

"_Yeah. I can't, uh, be here right now. I have to go."_

"_Are you okay Isaac?"_

"_-have to…go."_

Ivan frowned. The sensation that something odd was going on was stronger than any time before, but he still couldn't pinpoint what it was. But he could feel that something in the vision was out of place. There was something extra that shouldn't be there otherwise.

"Reveal," he muttered, letting the second psynergy mix with the first, and then turned to the vision again to see if he could discover what was distracting him so much.

The blond boy leaving the rest seemed normal enough, except that the obvious psynergetic presence surrounding him was a good deal stronger than he'd seen in anyone else. The girl and red-haired boy had a similar psynergetic light as well, though not quite as powerful as the other boy possessed. There was a man, and nothing spectacular about him.

Then he turned to the woman nearby. She had long auburn hair, but almost like a ghostly apparition, there was a different woman next to her, with blonde hair. And as he looked at the two different women, he saw the ghost-woman vanish entirely, and the odd feeling grew.

"_Everyone else is gone, Menardi. Who would have suspected Sol Sanctum contained such power."_

"_That must have been a trap to protect the Sanctum. Next time we must be prepared. Let's get out of here Agatio."_

Something had pulled his attention back again, and when he looked, the blond boy appeared to be listening in on a conversation between a pair of warriors: one male and one female.

Again, just behind the male warrior stood a specter of different warrior, with blue hair hanging down in his face. And the feeling had grown beyond Ivan's comprehension. His hands and face were sweating, apparently, because he felt as though he were drenched, and there was an overpowering smell that he had only just begun to realize had been present the entire time, but too subtle to actually sense. And he knew the smell well.

Seawater.

(_Mercury psynergy?_) He thought. All the adepts he'd seen in the vision so far had been limited to Mars and Venus alignments. But somehow there was an overpowering Mercury presence.

And as soon as he'd thought the words, the presence seemed to collect itself and focus on him.

"_Who's there?"_ The bodiless presence asked, but it didn't wait for an answer. _"Ah. It's you. I should have known. You know, it's not polite to eavesdrop. Using your psynergy to spy on others, for shame."_

"Who are you?" Ivan kept his attention solely on the spirit, unaware that the two Mars adepts had assaulted the boy and his newly arrived companion, and the young ones were not faring well.

"_No one you need concern yourself with. But really, I must teach you manners."_

And the presence began to gather an unfamiliar psynergy that, despite Ivan's knowledge, he couldn't recognize, and he couldn't escape the sensation that it wasn't really any form of psynergy at all.

"_Flash."_

The energy surged, and the vision was consumed in a bright white light. The blond boy who lay unconscious on the ground alongside the red-haired boy vanished, and the enormous release of power threw Ivan from his crouching position before the altar. He flew through the air and struck the wall on the opposite side of the room, falling to the ground in a broken heap. His eyes were clenched shut, and blood ran down his face from numerous burns.

Hamma ran from her room when she heard the commotion, and fell to her knees beside her brother, yelling for one of the other monks that resided in the temple to bring a healer.

And the rain kept falling.


	2. Chapter 2

I'm finally getting around to the second chapter. We'll see if my impeccable ability to stay devoted to a single task will hold up for the rest of this story. ...yes, that was sarcasm. But anyway, on with the story.

* * *

Isaac gasped, sitting up in his bed abruptly, his chest heaving to catch his breath. He closed his eyes, running his hand over his face and trying to slow his breathing. He'd had a nightmare, he knew, but what it had been about had escaped him upon waking. Once he'd calmed down, he let his head fall back and stared at the ceiling, his hand brushing through his blond hair.

"Isaac?" called a voice from around the corner just outside of his room. Isaac jumped in his bed, pulling his blankets to cover his bare skinned chest. The weather had been warm recently, too warm to be able to sleep comfortably in his shirt. He decided he was sufficiently covered just in time, as a brunette girl rounded the corner and crossed her arms in annoyance.

"Jenna? W-what is it?" Isaac stuttered, more than a little flustered by being caught off guard, and embarrassed at his lack of proper sleepwear.

"We're supposed to meet with Kraden today, remember?" she said, raising an eyebrow and cocking her head at the blond boy. "So get up." She slouched against the wall. Isaac watched Jenna for a moment, hoping she would leave so he could get out of bed and get dressed and avoid any further embarrassment. But she didn't immediately, leaving Isaac no other recourse.

"Um." Isaac eyed his clothing, draped over the chair several feet away from his bed.

Jenna followed Isaac's vision, and caught on quickly. "Oh! Sorry." She walked the few feet to the chair, grabbed the pants off the seat, and tossed them at the bed. Isaac fumbled for a moment, nearly releasing the sheets to grab at the pants before realizing his mistake and pulling the sheet upward again. The pants landed rather neatly on his face.

Taking a chance peek out from beneath one leg, the brunette was not to be seen, so Isaac shrugged, dressing in silence.

Several minutes later he was descending the stairs of his home, his eyes falling on a woman who was not his mother, at least by birth. He smiled toward her kindly, and she looked up from her cleaning to smile back at him. "Hello, Isaac."

"Morning." He placed a hand on the table centered in the room, looking around. "Where's Jenna?"

"I sent her down to run some errands for me. She shouldn't be too long. You and she are going to see Kraden today, right?"

Isaac nodded. "But not until later. I thought I might get some training in before we left to meet him."

The woman nodded, pausing in her work. "You-" she paused. "It's been three years now, hasn't it?"

The blond swallowed. It was never an easy subject to talk about, but it somehow always came up, especially around him. Three years since he'd lost his family. Three years since the boulder fell, and his mother and father had been lost. Jenna, too, had lost loved ones. But she still had her mother and grandparents. Isaac had no other family to lean on.

Jenna and her mother had been kind enough to take him in, so in return he'd offered them his own home. It was far too spacious for him to live in alone, and he couldn't bear to part with it. It was, after all, all he had left of his parents.

Isaac raised his eyes. "Yes."

"Do you- Do you think things would have been different if you'd known psynergy back then?" She set down her dusting cloth and sat at the table where Isaac stood.

"Yes."

"You're probably right. But you can't change what happened-"

"I know." He lifted his head, letting a small smile return to his face. "But I won't let that happen to anyone else."

A similar smile formed from the woman's mouth. "Sit. I'll make you some breakfast."

-----

A pale boy in loose-fitting robes sat in front of the temple altar, his staff sitting across his lap. His hands were rested over the aged wood, his legs crossed beneath them. To his right, an older man with long brown hair climbed to his feet, and whispered, "Thank you."

"Good travels to you, sir." Ivan nodded, pale blue cloth slipping over his shoulder. He lifted a hand to brush the cloth back, then untied the knot that held the cloth over his eyes and retied it.

Hamma stepped through the door, nodding to the departing man. "Travel safely, Master Hammet. Good luck on your trip north."

"And thank you, Master Hamma. And you as well, Master Ivan." Then, drawing up his own staff from beside the door, he departed.

Hamma turned back to see Ivan pulling himself to his feet, supporting himself with his rod. She made a movement toward him, thinking to help him, but before she could even step, Ivan's hand extended in a gesture to stop her. "I can do it. I'm blind, not crippled."

"You're weak," she protested faintly.

"And I will be as long as I am forced to have help from others. I think-" he raised his eyes to the ceiling, as though he were considering the sky. "I'll go outside."

Both siblings stepped out of the temple, the woman resting a hand on Ivan's shoulder, but allowing the boy to walk on his own. He held the rod closely, using the tip to lead him away from obstacles. Soon both were seated on the stairs, Hamma watching Ivan, and Ivan watching nothing.

"It is beautiful."

Hamma smiled. "You always say that."

"Well, it's true. I wish I could show you." He gestured out toward a cluster of trees, and so Hamma looked out toward them too. "You see the trees and the sky and the birds and creatures. I see life."

Hamma suppressed a chuckle. "You always say that, too."

Ivan looked toward Hamma, head inclined thoughtfully. "Does it bore you?"

"Of course not," Hamma hugged him closer with an arm. "I think it's amazing. But," she paused, trying to think of how she wanted to continue. "What about the monsters that have been appearing? Do you think it means things are starting?"

"We'll see."

-----

It was a few hours later that Isaac set out toward Kraden's workshop with Jenna and Garet in tow. Jenna had packed some food for all of them, as they were planning on entering the Sol Sanctum, and none of them had any idea on how long they might be in there.

Garet was speaking with Isaac on the stories he'd heard from his father, about there being monsters in the Sol Sanctum, to protect whatever treasure it contained from thieves. When Isaac had voiced a concern about entering the Sanctum without permission, Garet merely laughed and replied, "A few monsters aren't going to stand in our way!"

"Shh!" Isaac stopped dead in his tracks, arm outstretched to signal his companions. Over the hill the trio were about to round were a pair of voices, both seemingly annoyed.

"He knows nothing more of the Sanctum than we do." Sounded a woman's voice.

"I have a feeling the elders haven't allowed him entrance. They must keep it well protected after the incident." Another woman, her voice harsher than the first.

"Yes, Agatio and I didn't predict the traps hidden within the Sanctum. But Kraden is an intelligent man. I think he could be to our advantage."

Someone had begun tapping Isaac on the shoulder, but he brushed the hand away, waving at whichever of his friends the hand belonged to to stop. He wanted to hear more.

"Will he go willingly?"

"Of course not."

"Isaac," came a low whisper. The blond boy spun around, eyes wide and a finger over his mouth. But it was too late.

"Who's there?" Two sets of footsteps rounded the hill, and finally Isaac could see the sources of the voices. Two women, just as the voices had suggested. One of them, probably the elder of the two, had long, blonde hair and her clothing made her look like a warrior of some type. The other wasn't quite as tall, and her deep red hair was cut short, falling just to her chin. She too looked like a fighter.

"Were you eavesdropping on us?" asked the red haired one.

"Uh," Isaac tried to straighten himself out, thinking all the while. "Not intentionally. We were heading toward Kraden's. We're supposed to meet with him."

The blonde narrowed her eyes at the three. "You _children_ are the reason he rushed us out of our meeting?"

"I-I guess." Jenna watched the women, stepping up to Isaac's side. "He told us to meet him."

She seemed to think about this for a time, before shrugging her shoulders. "Fine. Go along, then," announced the blonde, and she stepped to the side to allow Isaac and the others to pass.

"Menardi?" the redhead seemed confused at Menardi's action, as her expression made clear.

Menardi shrugged her shoulders. "There is nothing we can possibly gain by barring the children from meeting with Kraden, Karst. Now," she turned to Isaac's group again. "Go. You don't want to be late. And, if you would allow me to give you some advice. I do not know if you were eavesdropping on us or not, but take care not to make a habit of it. It is a bad habit to get into."

Isaac watched the two as they passed. Karst seemed very displeased to be letting them go, but Menardi just smiled, an expression that did not help the unease Isaac felt settling in his stomach.

-----

Sol Sanctum was a truly impressive structure, even moreso on the interior than the exterior. Labyrinthine stone hallways, occasionally decorated with murals or carvings, though none of the four needed to study them to know what they depicted. The birth of psynergy, and the sealing of the forbidden art of alchemy.

"Isaac," Garet asked, taking up a position at the blond's side as they progressed through the pathways of the mountain temple. "Are you okay? You've seemed quiet."

"Thinking about what those two said."

"Who? Those Menardi and Karst girls?"

"Yeah."

Garet nodded. "I heard it too. Menardi spoke like she'd experienced the Sanctum for herself. Like they'd been in here."

Isaac raised an eyebrow. "You think she snuck in?"

"They might be thieves. They certainly looked ready for a confrontation."

Isaac nodded at the memory. "We'll tell the elders about them when we get back to Vale."

"What about us?"

"Well, if we have to, we'll tell them we came up here to confirm it, but," Isaac came to an intersection in the hallway, and glanced down each path before he continued straight on, "They might believe us if we just tell them we heard them talking."

"This place is_astounding_!" rang Kraden's voice from behind the boys as he marveled at everything within eyesight. "This whole structure seems to have been built specifically to ensure that only those with psynergy can gain entrance! I wonder if even the elders of Vale know about how deep the Sanctum goes."

They continued on, dispatching the occasional creature that attacked them with ease. All the while, Isaac was beginning to feel better about entering the Sanctum. Yes, they would all probably be punished, but perhaps they would forego that in the light that they helped capture a pair of thieves. He felt quite sure that something good would come of it all.

Soon, they found themselves in an impressive stone chamber. The architecture looked painstakingly crafted, most especially the sun-shaped crest centered on the floor.

"This must be it! The Inner Sanctum! See the sun on the ground? Because Sol Sanctum is built in honor of the sun! My, this place is just like they said it was."

"Huh?" Jenna looked to Kraden. "Who said?"

Kraden waved it off as though it were nothing, "Oh, just a pair I met with before you arrived. They told me of the Sanctum, and I didn't dare believe they had seen it with their own eyes, but," Kraden's own eyes shone in appreciation of everything that surrounded him. "But they were _right_!"

"So they _were_ here!" Garet shouted. "I knew it! They're thieves, trying to steal from the Sanctum! We have to go back and tell the elders!"

"No. Not yet." Kraden said as he ran his hand along the carving on the floor. "We're so close."

"Close?" Jenna asked.

"To the secrets of alchemy itself. This is the very birthplace of psynergy and alchemy! To turn away now," he paused. "Who knows the next time someone may uncover this place."

Isaac looked down at Kraden. Discovering the secrets of Sol Sanctum seemed to mean everything to him, and it did seem like a bit of a waste to come this far and not see it through to the end. It wouldn't hurt to stay a bit longer and see what else there was to see, would it?

"We'll look around a bit more, then head back to Vale, all right?"

Garet scratched at his neck, seeming less that enthused. "I guess that's okay."

"Thank you, Isaac! Thank you!" Kraden smiled, looking nearly on the edge of tears. "You three go on ahead. I want to stay here and examine this room some more. Go see what's ahead and tell me what you find."

So the three did what they were told, stepping through the short connecting corridor into another room, unnaturally dark despite the torches Garet and Jenna carried.

"Kraden! Come look at this!" Jenna called out. The scholar quickly joined them, and looked in awe at the carving on the floor.

"It's Luna! What is a depiction of Luna doing in a temple dedicated to Sol?"

"Well, it's the moon, right?" Isaac asked. "And Sol is the sun. They're night and day, like two sides of a coin."

Jenna's face lit up. "Yes! Like night and day! You can't have one without the other, can you?"

Kraden nodded eagerly, studying the Luna crest with the same intensity as he'd given the Sol crest just moments before. "Yes, you're quite right! I'd say that's quite possible."

Garet shifted impatiently. "C'mon you guys, let's keep going."

The three continued on , up a set of stairs and into another chamber, and another crest of Luna on the floor. This room, if at all possible, was even more regal than the ones prior. Statues of beautiful women adorned the corners, and fresh water ran in a shallow moat around the raised platform that boasted the stone hewn crescent moon.

And just through another connecting passage, Isaac could see yet another chamber, just as ornate as the one they stood in, and the carving of the sun in the middle of it all.

"Does anyone else think this seems strange?" Isaac voiced. "Four rooms, and that's it?"

Jenna, bent down over the clear water, nodded. "Sol Sanctum is supposed to be the birthplace of alchemy, but I don't see anything like that here."

They split up, scanning the rooms for anything, any clue that might lead them further or reveal a piece of information, but as the minutes passed, Isaac was beginning to think that maybe there wasn't any more, after all. And he told the others as such.

"Maybe so." Jenna sighed. "Poor Kraden, he'll be crushed."

"Maybe not." Garet called out, looking at the floor by one of the statues. The blond boy and brunette girl approached him to see what he was so interested in. "These marks in the floor." He crouched down and tapped them with a finger. "Does anyone else think these look like- Like someone's moved the statues?"

Isaac dropped to his knees and peered at the marks. "Maybe. But don't go moving anything around yet."

"Huh?"

"Remember what Menardi said. She said there were traps in the Sanctum."

Confused, Garet asked, "I thought we passed the traps."

"Those were tests to weed out non-adepts. Remember what Kraden said?" Jenna spoke up.

"And Kraden said that they had seen these rooms. They couldn't have gotten here unless-" he stopped.

Jenna seemed to be thinking along the same line of thought. "They're adepts too?"

"No way!" Garet stood, brushing his pants of the thin layer of dust they'd collected from the floor. "There can't be any adepts outside of Vale!"

They all traded glances. He was right, they had always been taught that psynergy was limited to the residents of Vale, due to the proximity to Mt. Aleph. But did that mean that no one else in the world could know psynergy? It seemed very unlikely.

"How else could they have been here?"

Garet went silent, unable to come up with a response.

"Okay," Isaac continued, "If this is a trap, like Menardi said, then there's got to be a way to disarm it or something. You don't put a trap in a place like this for no reason."

Jenna's eyes lit up, and she rushed past both boys, and into the connected chamber with the Sol carving. "I'll bet that if that's the trap-" she pointed into the Luna room, "-then the way to disarm it is in here! Night and day, remember?"

All of this was becoming very dependent on ideas and bets and maybes, Isaac noted mentally. But they had nothing more to go on than those very maybes, so he nodded along. If they were to find whatever the Sanctum hid, maybe a gamble on chance and a leap of faith were necessary.

"Well, there's more drag marks by these statues." Garet announced to the rest. He had to set a hand on the statue to raise himself to his feet, and Isaac stifled a chuckle when he saw where he'd managed to set his hand on the statue of the voluptuous woman with an urn in her arms. Garet saw the blond covering his mouth, and shot him a glare when he realized he'd had a hand on the stone woman's hip. "Shut up and help me move these statues. They were dragged over there." He pointed out a pair of positions near the wall, flanking another statue.

Isaac set himself against the stone figure and shoved as hard as he could. It moved almost too easily, and he stumbled forward for a moment before catching himself on the stone woman's urn. He shoved again, then into the same position that Garet had pointed out to him. Across the small moat, Garet had done the same.

A light shone out of the statues' urns, striking a stone tile in front of the statue they flanked. Before three pairs of eyes, the stone melted away, leaving only a hole.

"Was that it?" Jenna asked. "Doesn't seem like a trap."

Isaac wasn't listening to Jenna as he leapt over the moat and onto the carved sun symbol. He tried peering into the hole, but despite the illumination from the urns, it was too dark for him to see anything. What he did see, however, were more markings on the floor.

"Maybe that was all there is to disarm- Isaac, what are you doing?"

"_Move_." Psynergy rushed through him, out through his outstretched palm and into the statue. The statue slid forward, inching closer to the hole in the floor until there was no more floor, and it fell in with a deafening crash.

Jenna was the first to speak afterwards. "Maybe that did it, then."

They returned to the Luna room, and very carefully, they slid the statues into place around the moat. As with the previous stone women, each carried an urn, and as each slid into place, light shone from the urn and onto the carved Luna crest on the floor.

"Look Isaac! Where the light hits it, it changed from Luna to Sol!"

They finished with the statues, eager to go tell Kraden what they'd found, and when they descended the stairs into the first set of rooms, instead of being greeted by eerie darkness, they found a brightly lit room and a shocked looking white-haired man.

"What did you do?! I'm studying the murals, and suddenly I find it's too dark to see! Did you find something?"

Jenna jumped forward, "Isaac figured out the trap! He moved some statues around, and it switched the crest from Luna to Sol!"

"Hey!" Garet blurted out. "I'm the one that found the marks on the floor!" Garet's outburst went unnoticed by Kraden and Jenna, and Isaac only gave his companion an apologetic look.

"I noticed the same thing down here." Kraden announced. "Have you noticed? This is the Sol room, now!"

As he said it, Isaac spotted the place where the Luna crest had once been carved into the floor. Except that now it was unmistakably a carving of a sun. But other than the new carving, nothing had changed.

"Is that it? All that to light up this room?" Garet sighed, disappointed. "And here I was getting excited about finding the treasure."

Isaac stepped away from the three, into the former Sol room, which had not sunk into complete darkness, because it was lit by something on the wall that looked very odd.

"Is that water?" Isaac reached out a hand toward it. The others must have heard him because there were footsteps behind him that all stopped when the oddity came into view.

"It looks like water."

"But it's on the wall. That's not normal."

Jenna glanced up at Garet. "Garet, we just moved statues around to make stone carvings change places."

Isaac was still too interested in the pool of water to hear the argument behind him. He found that if he squinted, he could make out something beyond the water. An open space. Without a moment's hesitation, he was taking a deep breath and preparing to step into the pool. It didn't look too far away, but he'd never tried to swim through water on the wall, and wondered if it were much different from normal water.

He never even got wet. The moment he'd stepped into the water, he'd immediately emerged in the room he'd seen from the other side. He turned to see if he could get back, and indeed, there was another pool of water which showed him the dim room and the three who seemed to have only just noticed his disappearance.

Once they'd all arrived in the room, he finally allowed himself a chance to really look at his surroundings. It looked as though he were in a dome of rock. The stone was rough, clearly a natural formation rather than man-made. Somehow, though, they were on a rock plateau surrounded by water. There were other plateaus, too, reachable only by jumping from one rocky pillar to another.

"Look at it, everyone. This is the true Sanctum." Kraden spoke, eyes wide, trying to take in everything. "This-This is it. The home of the Elemental Stars."

"Elemental Stars?" Garet asked.

"He taught us about them. About how everything is created by the four elements. Fire, Water, Earth and Air." Jenna recited clearly.

Garet glared at her. "Bookworm."

"The Elemental stars contain the purified essences of those four elements, right?" Jenna continued before returning Garet's glare.

"The very source of alchemy!" Kraden didn't even seem to be listening, too swept up in his discovery to be bothered with anything else. "Right here before me."

Isaac saw what Kraden intended to do before the others, and as the scholar approached the edge of the plateau to try and make the treacherous journey to one of the smaller platforms, the blond rushed forward and grabbed him by the arm. The older man instantly began to struggle. "Let me go! I have to see them!"

Jenna and Garet rushed to Isaac's aid, and once they each had Kraden by an arm, Isaac stood and said "I'll go get them, then."

Kraden looked up at him, his expression melting from wild desperation to confusion. "You would do that? I couldn't ask- Would you?"

Jenna chimed in. "Yeah, make the boys do it!"

Garet swallowed. "Uh, no offense, but I'll leave it to Isaac, I think."

Jenna rolled her eyes at the red-haired boy. "Fine. I'll go with you, Isaac."

The blond would have said something about it being a bad idea, and he'd go alone to get the Stars, but he knew how it would all end. It would end with both he and Jenna going out to get the Stars, no matter what he said, so he decided to skip the part in between and just let her come along.

"Take these, Isaac." Kraden offered up several metal mesh bags to the boy. "I-I'm sorry for the way I acted."

Isaac smiled at him, showing there were no hard feelings, and off he went.

The stones were slick, but Isaac managed to keep his footing on them. A quick check on Jenna revealed the brunette waiting for him to jump to the next, standing on her small stone as though all of it were very simple. It was a few more minutes until they reached the plateau. While Isaac stopped and sat on the stone and tried to catch his breath, Jenna eased one of the mesh bags out of his grip and stepped over to the statue. She seemed to look at it for a moment, and Isaac saw its light shining in her eyes. Then, with no further thought, she picked it up in her hand and eased it into the bag, and pulled the drawstring to close it.

"Next!" she said cheerfully, tying the bag at her belt.. Isaac's head sagged, and begrudgingly he rose to his feet.

They claimed the second, and had just taken the third when they heard something from the center of the cavernous chamber. Isaac turned to see what was happening, and found

"They seem to have spotted us, Menardi."

Standing on the island in the water, holding back both Garet and Kraden were the two women from earlier, along with a man in a strange mask.

"It can't be helped, I guess. Though I'd hoped to wait until they'd collected all the Stars."

Garet struggled against Menardi's grip on his arm, but in vain. "I knew you were thieves! You want the Stars! You won't get away with this!"

"So!" Kraden struggled similarly against Karst, but his attempts at freedom were even more fruitless than Garet's. "You plan to kill us after getting what you want?"

"No," spoke the man in the mask, "We had an agreement. You won't be hurt."

Menardi shrugged. "As long as they give us what we want, then yes. No one will be hurt."

"Hand over the Stars." Karst pushed Kraden forward.

Isaac looked from where his friends were held to Jenna and the three bags on her waist. It seemed as though there was no choice but to give up the Stars to Menardi and Karst, but to have come so close to the treasure of Sol Sanctum, only to have it torn away. It was a bitter feeling. "We have to-"

"No!" Jenna shook her head. "No, they're lying! They'll take the Stars and then kill us all! We can't give them up, Isaac!"

Menardi turned to the masked man. "Prove to them that we are not lying."

The mask tilted to one side, displaying confusion. "What do you mean?"

The blonde woman rolled her eyes. "Do I have to spell it out for you? Take off your mask, Felix!"

The name rang through the cavern, because no one could possibly muster a reaction to hearing it said aloud.

Jenna stared at the masked man incomprehensibly. Isaac could understand her reaction, though. Certainly, if his father were suddenly standing before him, he wouldn't know what to think or do either.

"Wasn't that the name of-" Kraden began, but Garet interrupted.

"Jenna's brother. He died three years ago, during the storm that hit Mount Aleph. He can't be the same person."

Then the masked man wasn't wearing his mask any more, and everyone in the cavern could see his face.

Garet just reacted even more strongly after the mask was cast away. "Felix! What are you doing?"

"My companion and I saved him three years ago," Menardi spoke. "We found him nearly dead, floating in the river. We nursed him back to health. He owes us his life, now."

Felix stared at the water, refusing to meet eyes with even his sister. He looked like he might have been dead, or maybe that he might have preferred that he were. His hair was longer than before, Isaac noted with some detachment. He looked like he would have given anything to not be back in his home town after a three year absence.

"Is that good enough for you? I'm sure you all know that Felix would never allow harm to come to you. Now bring me the Stars!" Menardi's voice grew louder, quite clearly losing patience with the whole situation.

Isaac looked to Jenna again. She met his eyes, and nodded. "I'll go," she said clearly, and set out toward the main island.

Karst all but tore them out of her hand when she presented them, and Menardi just smiled. "Good. Now go get the last one."

Garet pulled against Menardi's grip again, his anger lit anew. "You said you'd let us go when you got the Stars!"

"We want all the Stars. Now go and bring it to us!"

As Jenna set out for the last island and the last Star, Isaac could see Felix whisper something to her. Whatever it had been, she didn't react or even slow down as she leapt to the stone and began making her way to it. Isaac began to make his way over there as well to give her any help he could. He was finally on firm ground just as Jenna set the shining red sphere into its bag.

At once, the cavern changed. The water was gone, and the whole chamber shook with an incredible force.

"What's going on?" Menardi demanded of Kraden, shoving Garet into Felix's grasp and taking the old man's robes in her fists. "What's happening?"

Kraden was dazed, but he stuttered out a meek answer. "The-the Stars maintained this chamber. Without them, it- The chamber will collapse."

"We should leave now." Karst looked to Menardi, waiting for an order.

"The other Star." She sent a glance at Isaac and Jenna, then her expression hardened. "We go. All of us."

Felix was the one to voice a concern. "What about them?"

Menardi shook her head. "If they survive, they'll bring us the Mars Star to trade for their friends. They're out of reach, I'm afraid, as is the last Star."

"Taking hostages wasn't part of the deal, Menardi!"

"The deal has changed! If you feel that strongly, we'll leave them here to die, but I doubt you want that."

Karst and Kraden were both through the pool of water, and at Menardi's threat, Felix and Garet passed through as well. Menardi was last, and then it was only Isaac and Jenna inside the crumbling cave.

The blond was worried. There was no way to reach the pool that provided the only escape from the chamber, and all around them the rock was showing signs of collapsing in on them.

And then the chamber of the Stars was gone, and they were on the other side of the mysterious pool, back in the Luna room, and something deep in Isaac's mind told him one word: _Run_.

As they ran through the winding passageways of the Sol Sanctum, Isaac shouted to Jenna. "What happened?!"

_I rescued you._

The intensity of which the words forced their way into his mind nearly made Isaac lose his footing, and judging by Jenna's similar reaction, she'd heard it too.

_You must recover the Stars. You must not allow Alchemy to be awakened._

"Who are you?" Jenna yelled. But there was no answer.

The whole temple shook as they ran, and Isaac couldn't help but wonder what could possibly move a whole mountain with such force, they passed through the corridors of murals until finally they burst through the archway entrance and into the blinding light of day.


End file.
